Daffodil Days

(originally posted to the old blog on 20th June 2008)

We generally have a set menu for breakfasts. We have the same thing
every Monday, Tuesday, etc. Sometimes we’re in the mood for a little
flair. This week instead of smoothies and peanut butter toast on
Wednesday we made breakfast parfaits.

I had four parfait glasses that my mom gave me years ago. Using them
made the meal so much fun! I put a spoon of vanilla yogurt in the bottom
of each glass followed by a spoonful of granola and some fresh fruit (in
these parfaits we used mangoes and strawberries but we use just bananas
if that is all we have on hand). Then I repeated the layer one time.
They were delicious and refreshing.

(This was the post that came before the vanilla extract post. I’m really just curious to see if my picture links still work. Originally published 7 Mar 2008)

Last Saturday was N.’s day to help make dessert. We had a great time
together!

Disclaimer: Don’t panic about the 5th of Vodka on the counter. It is
actually homemade vanilla extract.

Cute mother/daughter shot.

Just for fun here is a belly shot from that day. I was 18 weeks. Next
Thursday is the big day to find out if there is a blue hat or a pink hat
in there.

[update: well, it's going to take some work to re-create what was lost! The photo links are not transferring. I have to go back to my files and upload the old pictures to photobucket and then insert the code directly into the new blog posts. Oh well. I'm not in a hurry. I may try to figure out how to change the date I'm posting things so I can put them in the right place! We'll see...]

(originally published 7 Mar 2008)

I’ve already had a recipe request. Whoo-hoo!

This recipe is from Martha’s Family Cookery Book by Martha Greene. Her
website is Marmee Dear & Co.

Basically you just put 4 whole vanilla beans in a fifth of vodka and let
it stand for at least a month before using. I like to turn the bottle
over a few times once a week or so. Sometimes I split the vanilla beans
but they look a little “furry” over time when I do this. Another good
idea is to buy 2 fifths of vodka up front so you have extra to “top up”
your extract as you use it. The vanilla beans are a bit expensive (about
$3.50 each) so I like to make them last as long as I can!

There are several posts from “Daffodil Days” that were lost when the server crashed. I’ve missed having them here as a reference — especially a few of the recipes. It was nice not to have to hunt them down but just click on the blog when I needed them!

Most of the old blog I saved as text files before the crash. I believe I only truly lost the very last post and I don’t even remember what it was. I’m going to copy and paste below the text from my post about how to make your own vanilla extract. I need to make some ASAP to have for Thanksgiving and Christmas baking!! I needed some today and had to pay almost $3 for a teeny tiny little 1 oz. bottle!!

Of course, if you homeschool, your fresh flower arrangement is very likely the latest science experiment!

J.E. has said a couple of things lately that just cracked me up. The first was Sunday morning. I pulled a pair of hand me down shoes out of the shed for J.E. at the last minute and one of them didn’t have a lace. I ran to the bedroom and found the perfect lace in the first drawer I looked in. As I was lacing the shoe I was telling J.E. how cool God is that he allowed me to find just what I needed just when I needed it. He replied,

“Yeah. God’s my favorite spirit.”

Tonight at dinner:

“Chicken is like gum. You have to chew it.”

I love that boy!

Today we skipped all of our Saturday obligations and enjoyed a lazy Saturday. It was WONDERFUL. I wish we could do it every Saturday!! I even stayed in my pjs until 10 AM!! We didn’t bother with breakfast until about 10:30 when we had homemade waffles with butter and syrup:

After dad returned from his overnight trip we headed to a local grainery to replenish my supply of SAF Yeast. One package of this stuff lasts me well over a year and is absolutely the BEST for making breads and pizza crusts. The grainery owner informed us that we were just in time for feeding the goats!

The great thing about not having any obligations all day is that you have time to stop and smell the roses — or, in our case, the cotton:

Hope your Saturday was as fun and relaxing as ours!

W. passed his green belt test. Dad, A. and W. are at the awards ceremony right now. I had to stay home with N. and the littles because N. has a sore throat and feels really crummy.

W.’s gear will be in next week so stay tuned for a more detailed update with pictures of the next sparring member of the B. family. Yikes!!

The muffins we had for breakfast today were so yummy I just had to take a picture of them. And since I have a picture, I just have to share!! The original recipe is called Fall Comfort Muffins. I highly recommend calling them Fall Comfort Muffins if you have any little people in your house that think they do not like pumpkin bread or banana bread. Our little friend that comes over for breakfast every day has declared that she strongly dislikes banana bread and pumpkin bread and will not eat them. She gobbled up 3 mini Fall Comfort Muffins, however, and asked for more.

Fall Comfort Muffins
(in a perfect world I would have used at least half whole wheat flour and half honey. Heck, in a perfect world I would have ground my own wheat berries for fresh whole wheat flour and used honey from the hive in my back yard!! Today, however, I was in a hurry and used unbleached white flour and (gasp!) white sugar.)

1/2 cup melted butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1 banana, mashed
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips, optional (I didn’t use these)

Mix together butter and sugar. Blend in eggs and water. Stir in pumpkin and banana. Mix all dry ingredients together in a separate bowl. Add to mixture all at once and stir just until combined. Stir in chocolate chips. Fill mini muffin cups 3/4 full. Bake at 350F for 12 minutes. Makes 39 mini muffins.

I served these with scrambled eggs and chunky applesauce. When the kids filed (looking very sleepy and grumpy as we had a late night last night) I announced that it is their lucky day! We’re having muffins for breakfast!!

W. has tried a few times since he was 4 years old to like karate. Over the summer he decided to try again and he loved it. One day in the not too distant future we may have another black belt in the family!

W. at the summer awards ceremony before receiving his yellow belt:

And here he is receiving his yellow belt: